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Computex 2008 Taipei, Taiwan Computex has long outgrown its venue near the center of the city. 2008 marks an important transition with the opening of the TWTC Nangang Exhibition hall. Accessible by shuttle bus it makes Computex even more disperse. But the Nangang location is like a regular convention venue with high ceilings and long aisles. Computex expects to have 1,624 exhibitors who will occupy 4,500 booth spaces of which 2,400 will be in the new hall. Show Floor The WAVE covered part of the show floor looking for new and difference technologies. Taiwan ’08 Design Innovation Taiwan has sought to go up the value chain in as production moved to China. One element of that chain is product design and ID. A small section of the exhibit in the Nangang Exhibition hall had exhibitors with design products and services. They included: Apogee Design Apogee Design had on display mouse and web cam products. Duck Image had a solar powered attaché case. A Touch The company has a broad line of touch panel overlays which are resistive, SAW and IR bezel. The IR is up to 42”. A-Data A-Data was showing a Disney frame with Mickey Mouse presence on the bezel. This is a 7” frame with touch sensor buttons. There is a Disney GUI. Resolution is 800 X 480. Adomax The AM-14, called the Carry-on Mouse, was being shown as a notebook mouse. The top opens to expose a USB cord. Well done design. Amrod Multiple video products were being shown: IP Video phone using a 5” display, a SIP/IP video camera for security and video door phone. The company also has a family of ZigBee products including lighting switches, power controller and ZigBee/Ethernet server. ArcSoft Its embedded technology will support printers, cameras, camera phones and digital photo frames. Show in the booth was smile and blink detection, face tracking and red-eye removal. Other technologies include Masque for Web Cams which allows the morphing of one face into another. Other technologies include: anti-shaking software for low light capture and noise reduction. The software can also do panorama capture. New features in 2008 include: Auto scene detection Also present in the booth is TotalMedia Extreme which supports the creation of HD video on blu-ray discs. The package supports the editiong and playback of movies on Blu ray, BD-Live is also supported. Another product is TotalMedia Theater which is a universal player for commercial and DVD movies in many file formats. Support also is provided for a virtual speaker mode, 10-band audio equalizer and many of the audio enhancement technologies. awin Computer A broad digital photo frame product line from 1.1” to 10.4” with the most products in the 7” size. The larger panels support zoom in and out. The 1.5” frames are like a clock with alarm and alarm functions. The 10.4” frame supports ebook functions, clock and “auto circulate picture” function. Can Technology Can Technology was showing a mouse the shape of an automobile. Clare Electronic The booth was promoting a Slimouse. Long and oblong this is about 3X the size of a thumb. Claimed to be ergonomic. Comxion Technology There were a number of frames in the booth. The ART-700 is a networked photo frame. It is claimed that the frame can have direct access to Flickr images. It is possible to directly download images without the PC. Face-Tek Face-Tek won a show award for its facial detection software which can be used for security authentication. This supplemented by a PIN code. The software can run on a PC and be integrated into a network infrastructure. Alerts can be posted when unauthorized individuals seek access. Fly Alpine Electronics An aluminum notebook cooler, model MB02, was being shown which has 2 fans in the bottom. Forward Electronics Forward Electronics is promoting both digital photo frames and POS and Point of Advertising displays. 7” displays were shown. Its displays were also being integrated into full screen digital media players. Genius One of the most comprehensive displays of PC accessories including digital photo frames. It also was showing iTouch and iControl. It claims its T555 laser mouse is the first touch control mouse. There was also the Traveler 525 a notebook mouse which is also touch enabled. Genius was also showing a Bluetooth Headset, BT-031, which is also touch enabled. The company also had touch panel speakers, SP T1200. Genius has certainly not ignored ways that touch can differentiate. GreenPower They had an aluminum stand with louvers which was claimed to be green because it does not require a fan. HTC Touch Diamond This phone has a multi-touch, 2.8” screen, 3.2mpixel camera and 4GB of internal storage. The styling is centered on the screen and a sleek form factor. Some have compared it to the iPhone. It does not. JCMatthew An extensive line of digital photo frames is being shown. These range in size from 3.5” to 15”. Options include: Bluetooth, WiFi and even a built in printer which was quite small and in the back of the frame. Touch support is coming. Jetart Jetart had the broadest line of notebook cooling platforms seen. This included single and dual fan designs. Most also served as a tilt up stand. Linpus Computex has this year an area of the exhibit on the LowPrice PC. One of the more interesting booths was Linpus Technologies. They are showing how the Linux OS can be the preferred OS for low cost machines. The company claims expertise in the UI and modification of Linux for the needs of the low cost market. A version called the Media Center was also shown. Longmax aka Micro-Meilon Co. This company has a wide range of computer accessories. Shown in the booth were cooling stands, notebook arms and notebook cases. The notebook stands included USB hubs. About 10 notebook stands are available. Mustek The product catalog has 16 different digital photo frames. They range in size from 2.4” to 8.4”. Netronix Netronix was showing 3 eBook readers from 5” to 9.7”. Internal OS used includes WinCE and Linux. All displays use electrophoretic technology. ORtech Technology The company had several examples of LED backlit color keyboards, some in red, green and dark blue. Perixx Matching wood mouse and keyboard. The keyboard had a wood frame with plastic keys. Stylish if one is into wood. Phihong Technology Promoting its large screen touch technology called nlighten. Based on IR imaging of the screen which is a display based on the TI DLP rear projection technology. Example used in the booth was for video The booth also had an 80” whiteboard called iBoard. Touch using a custom marker was done with ultrasound. Sinopex The booth was dominated by Notebook Tool Kits, each one in a carrying case. The upper end model PXT-T904D has a web cam, USB hub, many cables and a mouse. Skyline Computer Another line of notebook stands. They claim to be a “notebook stand design house.” The designs ranges from fanless to multiple fans to aluminum to plastic. Sondyo Computer Company ‘A mobile phone watch which was large for a men’s watch but small for a phone. The model is SMP-007 and it is GSM Tri-Band with a 1.3Mp camera. This display is 128x160. It is claimed that handwriting is supported on the touch screen for MMS or SMS communications. SSI A new category is HDD docking stations. Just plug a 3.5” and 2.5” drive into the station vertically. SSI was showing docking stations in both sizes. Sun Group Sun Group is going beyond its role as a supplier of digital photo frames and was promoting similar products for POS, advertising and digital signage. The signage displays range from 10.4” to 19”. The company is claiming a number of features for this market including physical security. Tekq There were 3 frames from 3.5” to 10.4” and the 7” being analog. Clock functionality included in most but no wireless connectivity. Transcend Shown were two frames of which the T.photo 710 included a clock and calendar. On board memory is 1GB. The other version of the frame had the name of the company on the bezel. WiMAX Expo, Taipei 2008 Hardly acknowledge by Computex is WiMAX Expo which occupies Building 2 of the WTC and runs from 2 – 6 June. During our walk though it was lightly attended. PC Market Shifts The Intel announcement of Atom illustrated an important shift in the PC market. As notebooks out sell desktops a new category is emerging – the 7” and smaller computer. Intel appears to have captured this opportunity with Atom. It remains to be seen how others in the industry build on the ecosystem being established. 7” is IN The OLPC and Eee PC have sparked new interest in PCs around 7” and smaller form factor notebook PCs. The announcement of the Intel Atom processor at Computex on served to highlight the importance of this segment of the market. Asus had a dedicated section of its exhibit showing the Eee PC. Acer highlighted its Atom powered notebooks. Intel had 11 notebooks in its stand using Atom. Intel was also showing a 2nd generation classmate PC. AmazePC The GSM Photo Frame can receive and MMS image automatically from a cell phone. Touch panel is an option. The Photo Dongo digital photo frames begin at 15” and go to 42”. The built in clock can be used to automatically turn on and off the frame. W2 is an All-in-one LCD computer. This is a complete PC built into the form factor of the LCD display. Uses the Intel G35 chipset and 775 CPU Core 2 Duo. Screen resolution up to 1680 X 1050. Higgstec Higgstec had a range of touch technology add on products. Their technology includes resistive and capacitive over the range from 6” to 20”. New for 2008 projective capacitive panel which supports multi touch. Intel For the first time in the WAVE coverage of Computex Intel had a booth on the show floor. This afforded a much better showcase for its technology. Some items which stood out. A substantial portion of the booth had notebooks from various manufacturers. Showcase of the next generation “Nehalem” server motherboards. Promotion of SSD based on Flash technology being used in a Lenovo notebook. A mobile concept device for accessing the Internet based on the Z-P140 SSD. A handheld client device which looks like a tablet. This uses the Atom 2500 processor and A rugged Table PC also using the Atom processor. Intel shows a concept for digital signage based on a large screen high resolution LCD panel. Keytech Keytec was emphasizing its touch technology based on an IR bezel. However, this does not support multi touch but their View Touch product, not being displayed was claimed to support multi-touch. Ming Jong Technologies Ming Jong has an extensive product line of video cameras focused on security. The M6610TM and M66611TM were of the most interest in that these are IP cameras with motion tracking. Next Base aka Simon Trading Co. Next Base is promoting its digital photo frames based on ease of use. This includes a WiFi connection. One can send an image to a photo mail box at @Gallery-mail and the image will be posted on the frame. The internal memory is 2GB. The web site @Galler-mail can also provide weather and updated news. Market Trends Seen from Taiwan At Computex market statistics are released which provide information on the industry here and on a global basis. The touch panel industry saw wider applications of the technology in 2007. It is expected that the growth from 2008 to 2009 will be 9%. The global market size for touch was $2.8B in 2007, with 3m units shipped, and expected to be $3.5B in 2010. It is expected that medium to large panels will be the driving force in growth in 2010. The Digital Picture Frame (DPF) market is seen as a significant growth area. In 2007 it is estimated that 10m units were shipped. The most popular size remains 7.2” and this will migrate to 10”. It is expected that 50m units will ship in 2010. Panel sizes are projected to grow to 32”. An emerging market is for the IC controller chip set. Taiwan companies in this sector at the low end include: Novatek, Jeilin, and MediaTek. The more sophisticated chip set suppliers include: Magic Pixel, Skymedia and Proflic Technology. The leading OEM/ODM PDF suppliers are: Lead Data; Action, AboCom, UMEC, LITE-ON, Mustek, Transcend, Qisda, My-Space, CRS and Gaia. Brand name suppliers are: AG Neovo, Actioin, LITE-ON, Mustek, Transcend, AboCom, Asuka and Digidock. The notebook industry is facing a shortage of panels, HDD, cases and batteries. The ASP of notebooks fell in 2007 from $541 to $529. The ASP is concentrated in the range $501 to $800, which accounts for 58% of the volume. A recent fire at a Panasonic battery factory could create a shortage of supply from 1.2 to 1.5m units/month until restored. Shipment volume for notebooks is expected to reach 110m units, a 25.2% annual growth. The motherboard industry is being impacted by the move to notebooks. Shipments of motherboards grew only 1% in 2007 to $2B. The ASP is $49.3. It is expected that notebooks will continue to replace desktop PCs. The shipment volume is expected to be 163.5m units. Show Floor Talk ArcSoft The WAVE spoke with ArcSoft about its morphing software, Masque for Web Cams. The software is for OEMs to be bundled with Web Cams. Masque recognizes a face on a web cam and places that face into an image. Included in the software is a set of licensed images (base), such as an image similar to the Mona Lisa. The web cam image is then morphed into the face of the selected base image. The user can send the final image or print it. If it is desired to use a base image which is one’s photo and not the supplied set, another ArcSoft product is required. One supplied image had two individuals in it, the user could not select which one to use for morphing. The software was already configured as to which one to use. The degree of face distortion in the base image is modest which makes full recognition of the face from the web cam less than obvious. Others in the booth thought the effect was cute. Digital Picture Frames As the WAVE roamed the floor over the last 3 days we could find little difference in the digital photo frame offers. AmazePC had the GSM frame but overall there was not much to differentiate the frames. We decided to pose the question to a number of ODMs – what makes your frame different from all the rest? Transcend We are a trusted supplier. TEKQ We do not use used panels. Leadtech Engineering We have a low price. Amstar We have stylish panels. Lead Data We are the largest ODM. In the discussion a scenario was also posed which addressed the question– what can be done to send pictures to the frame? All bypassed electronic connectivity, such as WiFi, due to the additional costs. We found it surprising that none of these companies had a compelling reason for their position on the market. WAVE Comments Having been at Computex now approaching 10 years, 2008 capped a long term trend. In the past the aisles were filled with companies making relatively simple and commodity products. Companies with keyboards, mice, power supplies and cases were ever present. All they needed was one big order and it was possible to qualify as an ODM. These categories had sufficient growth that there was a chance to make it into the supply base. Over the last 4 years at the WAVE we have seen the presence of want-a-be companies declining. At 2008 it was blatant. All that were left was the major ODMs, of which KYE had one of the better booths. But these shifts go much deeper than the mice and keyboards. These mature ODMs must have broad product lines to survive. That is, the mouse and keyboard categories will not sustain the business. Category depth is essential in the PC accessory business. Taiwan must innovate to survive. Yes, we have heard these words over and over again at Computex. The Taiwanese are proud of being a source of innovation and gaining recognition outside the country. In practical terms this means going up the value chain. Again Computex 2008 provided evidence of this is several ways. First, was the presence at the new TWTC Nangang Exhibition Hall of a section with Taiwanese ID firms. This is an area which has been dominated by European and US firms. Taiwan is showing significant strength here. Second, was the breadth of product categories on the show floor. Basically if it is electronic Computex had ODMs ready to build it. This is critical in order for Taiwan to survive in competition with China. This innovation assessment is also very consistent with the first one above. Living with past product categories will not sustain the business. In this case it is the technology based economy of Taiwan which is the business. |
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